Excerpt from The Timber Rot Caused by Lenzites Sepiaria The damage inflicted in America alone by Lenzites sepiaria is enormous. This fungus, together with several others, destroys a large proportion of all untreated coniferous railroad ties and telegraph and telephone poles which are in service in the country. Probably one - fourth of this damage is done by Lenzites sepiaria. The valuation of the railroad ties and telegraph and telephone poles furnished by the coniferous species of trees in 19085 was in round numbers If the above estimate of damage done by Lenzites sepiaria is anywhere near correct, this would mean that timber worth about annually has its length of service seriously Shortened by this fungus. Under present methods of American railroading it is probable that an average length of service of an unrotted coniferous tie Would scarcely be more than 12 to 15 years - that is, the tie will be worn out by the end of this period. The actual average service of untreated coniferous ties can hardly be placed at more than 5 to 8 years. Thus, we find the wood-rotting fungi practically diminishing the service of this timber by one-half. More over, there are vast quantities of timber in the form of piling, bridge timbers, trestles, Sidewalks, fence posts, etc., which are also destroyed by this fungus. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.